Laos confident national stadium will be ready for SEA Games

Bangkok, Dec 30 (DPA) Laos, which will host the South-East Asia (SEA) Games in November, has received assurances that the Chinese-constructed National Stadium will be completed by March, a Lao foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday.”The Chinese contractors have assured us that the stadium will be completed by March,” said the ministry’s spokesman Yong Chanthlangsy.

“This will give the Lao government enough time to rehearse all the things we need to do to prepare for the games,” Yong told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) over phone.

Land-locked Laos, one of South-east Asia’s poorest countries with a population of less than six million, will host the SEA Games for the first time in mid-November.

To help Laos prepare for the games, China has provided government loans amounting to $80 million to its communist neighbour to build a new National Stadium Complex in Vientiane, the capital.

The SEA Games’ planned 390 events in 25 different sports will be held in Vientiane’s two sports stadiums and several venues in the capital.

Deputy Prime Minister Somsawat Lengsawat, who heads the National Preparatory committee for the SEA Games, was informed of the progress on the main stadium at a meeting in Vientiane Monday, said Yong.